Our friends at Hungarian architecture and design site hg.hu have posted a series of images of Ross Lovegrove’s Solar Tree solar-powered street light being installed in Vienna, prior to the official opening tonight.
More info and renderings about the project in our earlier story.
All photos are by hg.hu.
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Posted by Marcus Fairs
October 8th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Do not tell me that they put up this horrendous crap for real.
I saw a spot on CNN a couple of days ago where they had Lovegrove talk…..
This guy is really a PR agent of himself but the things he reported about was a one to one copy of Zaha Hadid’s work. He again makes himself famous as the NR.1 Copy Champion in Design. They should sue his ass.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
It all started with his George Nelson knock off office chair for Driade….
It least he’s consistant
PS Poor Viennese people
October 8th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
ahahah you’re funny
October 8th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
hey big lover we love your work……..
October 8th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
It looks rather good fun! I wonder if the stems light up at night!
October 8th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
what is original?
just by posting this i am 3 times less original.
a rich man pretending to be poor is more original than being poor.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
what a waste of money and time, it was “unveiled” yesterday with some lame musician supporting act – i cant forgive myself for the decision …
i am sorry but it is just poor, not bad (like london olympic logo -in positive way) not good either – just poor.
October 10th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Solar powered streetlight certainly makes sense.
Hideous crap I think not, Joshua Flims. What would you have it look like? Would you be so confident in your own ability to apply a suitably neutral ’styling’ to the solar powered tree? What is the crux of your criticism? Your language suggests to me that you are someone who we would sometimes term as ‘thick’, more frequently- ’stupid’.
(”sue his ass?” – Christ)
November 28th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Ahhh,
Guess what, you are all missing the genius behind the idea. Wait and see -or open your eyes you see it everyday.
December 1st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
solar trees are cooler than any other public lightning in vienna and almost anywhere else…imagine a boulevard full with it…what we have seen is a prototype. This work is untouchable even in it´s first steps…
December 19th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Brilliant, what a gracious way to blend in nature and clean technology. I love it !
January 12th, 2008 at 7:12 am
wow i was so surprised to see the design snobs on here “dissing” lovegrove’s lamps.
you sound jealous.
these are the perfect public art for our time.
they mimic nature…they raise consciousness about going “Green”
and they look pretty cool lit up at night.
you criticize lovegrove for being a “salesman”
gee maybe you should try designing something HALF as gorgeous as his stuff
check out his entire website
and then maybe you should learn how to sell too
instead of being jealous and bitter.
have a nice day.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Great! – green, artistic, practical – love to see them everywhere that needs a light.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:59 am
aweful.
Green, – no, massive amounts of energy go into solar panels which have a very limited life (6years at best) they need to be cleaned regular to optimise power. in urban enviroments birds/pollution will dull them in weeks. Columns there are columns here which dont actually do anything. Bent and tapered is v expensive. plus 2tone paint job not cheap. so compare this design to a standard low voltage street light using electronic gear designed to reduce energy output during off peak hours with its long life. you can even stipulate where the energy comes from for this. ie a wind farm.
Artistic – not really just different from the norm. but it cant be used everywhere. so as a result its very limited. cant be used near a road as it might be hit by a bus. limited in terms of lamp height. There is also something creepy about emulating nature, as it just looks very unnatural. ie fake.
Practical – this is a joke, maintenance on this will be a nightmare. the short life of the solar panels the bird crap. How will it look after 10 years of life. (bearing in mind the average street light system does 30years life) not to mention light tresspass and the fact that this will not give out much light when its overcast and dull. For winter when you need more light, (less daylight in shorter days) how will it cope.
would like to know the total cost. design build installation and projected life of item to compare to modern streetlight before you can value its worth.